That's a Quality Pinata

Wal-Mart Sucks.
(Originally written 6/30/2008)

Yes, I am against Wal-Mart as a retail entity, as I am sure many people in the world are. However, my hatred has been backed-up by the information in the movie Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

I have always understood that, with the low prices that Wal-Mart offers, somebody somewhere must be taken advantage of. However, Wal-Mart is one step above using sweatshops over in China. Apparently, they also offer housing for their employees, and the rent is taken out of their paychecks. That doesn't sound so bad; however, even if an employee doesn't live in the company housing, they take the rent out of their paychecks.

Wal-Mart is also so opposed to unions that if the word is even breathed under someone's breath, they bring in an Anti-Union Task Force, at the price of $7,000,000, to take control of the store. The store manager loses all control, they install cameras and bugs to listen to people, they freeze raises so as not to appear to bribe anyone. This shit is absolutely crazy the kind of things that Wal-Mart does.

Not only that, but the widow of Sam Walton and his four children are each worth over $10 billion. Did you know that the entire family has only given about 1% of their money to charity. OK, I know. You're probably saying "It's their money. They don't have to give it away." I'll agree with that. However, Bill Gates has donated 58% of his income to charity. Wal-Mart offers some sort of charity where their employees can donate money to help other employees who have lost their houses and belongings in storms and hurricanes and things. In 2005, the employees donated about $5 million. The Waltons... $6,000. What the fuck is that shit? When you have $12 billion dollars, give a little away. No one can possible spend that much in a lifetime. Especially when you husband and father believed that the most important aspect of the company is the employees. Without the employees, you ain't selling shit. I would love to see Sam Walton's wife with a pallet jack unloading a truck. Remember your roots, motherfucker!

Sorry for the tirade. That movie got me so pumped up about my hatred for Wal-Mart. I haven't even touched on some of the sickest shit that they do as a company. How can a company of this size get away with the law-breaking that they do? Someone needs to step in and do something. Bill Gates and Microsoft was harassed for years about creating a monopoly. Well, in my opinion, when you come into an area and all of your competition is closing it's doors, I'd say that's one hell of a monopoly.

Inter-Company Crossover

June Comic Watch.
(Originally written 6/22/2008)

I picked up my comics on Friday night, and after making it through most of them, I have a few thoughts.

Number 1; Secret Invasion is coming out awesome. For the sake of spoilers, I won't go into detail, but the newest issue focuses on one important character, and the final outcome definitely brings mixed feelings for me. Superficially, the end of that issue is so obvious that it kind of made me say "Well, that explains a lot." However, with the understanding of how much thought and work Brian Michael Bendis has put into the story over the past few years, it just couldn't be that simple. I have to expect more.

Number 2; The newest Ultimate X-Men storyline kicks ass. I have recently begun to lose a little steam with this title; it seemed that a lot of what was happening was subpar, at best. Even the whole Apocalypse storyline was lacking that OOMPH. However, Aron Coleite has hit on something that is working so far. Even the super-powered character designs are frigging awesome. I particularly like Angel.

Number 3; New Exiles has gotten a little better, though I'm still cautious about it. Chris Claremont has not been at his best over the past couple of years. I feel that his recent runs on a few of the X-titles were... well, crap. Not to mention the changes that he brought the Exiles just didn't meet with my approval (I still miss Blink). The newest issue, however, was pretty good. I do like how he is giving Morph a chance to be more than just comic relief. This is definitely an improvement over last month (a prince falls in love with a dragon? What the fuck?). Hopefully, things are looking up.

Number 4; X-Force. Man, the blood, the violence, the changes in character. Not to mention the return of Archangel (who looks awesome at the end of issue 4, by the way). Yost and Kyle are doing great here.

That's pretty much all that sticks out in my mind right now. That, and I haven't finished all of my books. When I do, and if something hits me good enough, I'll be sure to give you my opinion.

Imagine What Halloween Is Like

NaNoWriMo.
(Originally written 6/16/2008)

Yes, I know that looks very weird, but allow me to explain.

So I picked up this book by a guy named Chris Baty called No Plot? No Problem! The purpose of the book is to help aspiring writers to write a full length novel, of 50,000 words or more, within the time span of 30 days. Sounds pretty cool huh?

Apparently, he and twenty of his friends did this in July of 1999. Out of the original 21, only 6 finished. Baty was so pumped after finishing a full-length novel that he began to make National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo... get it?) an annual thing. He changed the actual month to November, as a way to beat the shitty weather blues, and he gets tens of thousands of people signing up for this thing.

He can add one more to the roster.

I think I'm gonna do this in November. I have some cool stories that I would like to get out there and write. But the problem is I never find the time to write them. One of the things he talks about in the introduction of the book is that having a deadline helps to push you to get work done. And being busy helps even more, which I believe completely. There are plenty of times that I have all of the time in the world to do shit, but I putz around and don't get anything done. Then I get pissed off at myself. But if I absolutely have to do that, then I finish this up first. Makes sense.

Anyway, if any one else is interested in learning more about this check out the National Novel Writing Month website. And, hey. Sign up if you want. It would be cool to go head to head a few of you people out there in internet-land.

It's German for "Evil Twin"

Anyone else excited about Ultimate Jubilee?
(Originally written 6/9/2008)

I was quite disappoint when Marvel de-powered Jubilee as a result of M-Day. I had always liked this character, despite the fact that she was a mash-up of Dazzler and Kitty Pryde, created to help Wolverine with his brusque attitude and give him something to care about. But regardless, I felt that a few writers did some great things with Jubilee, most notably after she joined the ranks of Generation X.

So imagine my surprise as I flipped through the pages of Ultimate X-Men #94 and saw Jubilee standing there among the ranks of Alpha Flight. A smile crept across my face as none had ever done in the past.

I really hope that she plays some sort of role in the upcoming storyline and is not just there to appease readers (like myself) or as canon fodder. Jubilee has a lot of potential, if only any writer where willing to use it. Anyway, I suggest you check it out, if you haven't already. And not just for Jubilee, mind you (though I wouldn't judge you for that.) Pick up this issue because it is the beginning of a storyline by Aron Coleite, who has done some great writing for the television series Heroes. If you don't read Ultimate X-Men, or have dropped out of it for a while, this would be a good place to pick it back up.

Speaking of all of this, as I tried to find a link to the cover for U:XM #94, I came across this bio of Jubilee. What I thought was interesting is that she joined the ranks of the new New Warriors after the Marvel Civil War. I had gotten the first issue, but quickly abandoned it because it really wasn't doing anything for me. But after learning this, and learning that the New Warriors are all ex-students of Xavier's, I may have to track down some back issues. I would like to read what all of this business is about.

A Misuse of Judgement

Wizard World Philly
(Originally written 6/5/2008)

Yep, I managed to check this out this past Sunday. My awesome girlfriend bought me tickets for our 3 year anniversary, so I was stoked. This is the first WW that I have gone to, despite the fact that I've been a comic collector for the last 18 years of my life. What is wrong with me?

Anyway, I'm glad it was remedied. I went there with the expectation of buying some issues to fill in the gaps in my collection, or picking up some variant covers of cool issues that I'd wanted. What happened, though, was strange. I spent most of the time, and money for that matter, with the artists. I've never really paid attention to buying signed prints, until this show. The first person that we ran into was Greg Horn, who, if you are aware of his work, is an amazing artist. He was such a cool guy to talk to that I got one of his prints, and I guess that got the ball rolling. We ran into Billy Tan, and he and I got into a talk about the New Avengers and how great of a writer Brian Michael Bendis is.

The coolest experience, however, was Billy Tucci. His interactions with the people at his table was off the wall. He seemed like a very subtle weirdo, and he was really cool. My girlfriend purchased an original sketch from him, and we let him take his time. We went back a few hours later and he hadn't finished it yet. That was cool with us so we left and came back and it still wasn't done. No problem. If he wasn't as friendly as he was, we may have had a problem with it; he was a busy guy with the panel he was on and all the attention that he got, so it was understandable. He was also a nice guy so we came back at the end of the show. Needless to say, the sketch was amazing and my girlfriend was really happy with it. I regret not getting a picture with the guy, but he was busy.

We also spent some time checking out the underground, independent stuff. Two of the things that stick out in my head are Freaky Dinkys and Brielle and the Horror, both of which are pretty cool and worth checking out.

Needless to say, we both had a blast. I can't wait until next year to see what other stuff I can pick up. Hopefully, there will be shit just as cool, if not cooler.

Now That's Creativity

I think I've rediscovered Weezer.
(Originally written 5/28/2008)

I'm really digging the new song, 'Pork and Beans.' And the other day, on my way to work, a local radio station played a block of Weezer which included an awesome acoustic version of Jaime. Since then, I've been listening to a CD a friend of mine made with a whole bunch of great Weezer songs.

My favorite song by them has been 'The Good Life' and it still holds up. But I've got a new appreciation for 'Surf Wax America.' Not to mention the song 'American Girl' that they did with Sonic Youth and Cake.

Man, I've never been excited for a new CD release before, but I'm really looking forward to when the Red Album hits stores.

Clit's Costume

The move is done.
(Originally written 5/2/2008)

Yay! We got everything into the new apartment and now comes the task of putting it all away. What a hell the actual move was.

First off, we didn't get started until around 10 AM. It was me, my girlfriend, and my girlfriend's little brother moving everything. We got the furniture into the truck when we learned that we wouldn't be able to get everything in and that we would have to make a second trip. That sucked.

When we got to the new place, a couple of my girlfriend's friends were able to come and help. That was awesome. Where as it took us three hours to get the stuff into the truck, with their help, we got it unloaded in an hour and a half. Afterwards, we went back to get the rest. That went OK, but getting it back up to the new place was terrible. Having to go up to the third floor 20 times in about a hour takes a lot out of a guy.

We finally finished up at around midnight. By the time I dropped off the truck and got back home it was almost 2 in the morning. Then I had to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work. Yeah, working after 3 hours of sleep sucks big time. I don't know how I every did it, especially when it involved a hangover as well.

Anyway, I'm glad it's done. I can get settled and set up all my cool stuff. Now all that's left for me to do is find myself a decent job. At least I will have to time to do that now.